Editing

1. EDITING

2. • "All language demonstrates three kinds of excellence : correctness,
precision and elegance. Language also has the same number of faults
and these are the opposites of the Qualities just mentioned". –
Quintilian

3. EDITING
• ‘Editing is derived from the Latin word ‘Editus which means to
disclose, to publish. Editing is the effort made by the writer to make
his writing highly effective and accurate. It is the process by which a
writer re–drafts and finalizes his written work. It aims at clarity of the
text, conciseness and the structure of the work. When we edit any
creative work, we check the grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure
and arrangement of the sentences, also facts and figures while
emphasizing on the main idea.

4. The editor's duty involves
• 1. Ensuring accuracy of the facts mentioned in the work.
• 2. Removing spelling and grammatical errors.
• 3. Suitability of the style used to convey the relevant subject.
• 4. Deleting every extra word that does not add any new meaning to the
story.
• 5. Usefulness of the write–up and impact on the readers or the target
audience.
• 6. Finally make sure that the work is complete in all respects and answers
all the six questions Who, When, What, Where, Why and How. If required
the editor could even rewrite the entire matter to make it readable.

5. Editing and writing a paragraph
• Coherence and cohesion of the passage.
• Stability of the form.
• The connecting words.
• Grammar, Spellings and Punctuation.

6. NEWS EDITING
• It is a journalistic craft that involves news processing and packaging. It is a
crucial part of the editorial process in which editors convert news reports and
illustrations into packaged information. News editing gives direction and
meaning to the mass of text and art provided by reporters, photojournalists and
graphic artists. News editing involves selecting copy for publication, editing
selected copy, designing news pages for newspapers, magazines, websites, etc.
Editing is the filtering stage of news processing
to ensure that errors that slip through reporting do not escape the editors who
prepare the sole newspaper product (i.e., information) for the consumer. As
editors prepare copy and art for publication, they are continually selecting,
rejecting, determining and arranging what is to appear in the publication.

7. Objectives of News Editing
• Accuracy is one of the chief concerns of the editing stage. News reporters
have the professional and ethical responsibility to include in their research
and writing process the checking of facts, correct spelling and pronunciation
of names, the factual details of a story, basis on which conclusions are drawn.
The reliability of the finished text depends upon accuracy in the research and
writing process.
• Academic credibility and trustworthiness of sources, expanding internet
access changes the rules by which sources are evaluated. Ready access,
speed, and the look of authenticity typically influence public use and
acceptance of available resources, as the propagation of medical, legal, and
other specialty is increasing so is the access to dubious sources. Therefore,
need of authenticity and attribution is in more demand.

8. • Maintaining objectivity : Reporters should focus on factual
information, documents , point of view while also reporting the
contents of the events so that innocents are not caught in the web.
What is real and what is staged, should be understood before
reporting.
• Maintaining the focus on a piece of writing is another important
element of the editing stage. Writers are fierce fully protective of
their work and often the editor’s emotional and intellectual
involvement is found in the writing process Therefore, writers should
distance themselves from the piece of work and not be biased.

9. • Balance and fairness : Balance and fairness form the foundation of good
editing. Balance gives both sides of the picture, while fairness is being neutral.
It also means not providing support to political parties, institutions,
communities or individuals, etc. through the columns of the newspaper. a
professional reporter and a sub editor should follow and implement it.
• Brevity : Brevity is a great virtue in journalism appreciated by readers and
editors alike. It is telling a story, as it should be, without complicating or
expanding the matter. It should be brief ( concise), compact ,clear and also a
sentence should not be more than 18 words.. It saves time and space and
wins applause when consummated to perfection.
• Clarity is the ability to think clearly and translate it into paper - a quality that
can take one to the higher echelons of media hierarchy. Readability has a
bearing on the sentence length and should be simple and have forthright
manner of expression to attain the standard. The best way to write news
stories is using simple words, and short sentences.

10. Functions of the News Editor
• The Editor ensures that stories are well-written and complete,
without offending ethical and legal standards. He is not directly
involved in information gathering but helps reporters get delivered of
their story ideas. He should have knowledge of how to use the
reference materials available to him, broad general awareness and
solid educational background and common sense.

11. Creative functions
• Judges the day’s news and decides how to present it.
• Compiles singles; stories from materials originating from a variety of
sources.
• Checks for errors and corrects faulty language: this demands sense of
news judgment, story pace and story polish.
• Writes headlines, captions and cutlines that are clear, vigorous,
factual and as complete a summary of the story as possible.

12. Managerial Functions
• Directs the work of art/graphic designers in photo selection and
display and is responsible for copy fitting.
• Keeps time copy and filler. Time copy is a story that is not easily
perishable, which can be kept for future use (e.g., how to make a
good home). When it is used to fill up excess space, it is called filler.
Fillers are usually small in quantity.

13. Policymaking Functions
• Guards against defamatory content.
• Assures objectivity (to guard public confidence), fair play and good
taste.
• Clarifies the news and makes it meaningful by improving the flow and
correctness of language.
• Checks spelling, grammar, sentence structure, style, taste, fact,
reportorial biasness, repetition, unnecessary detail, overlooked facts,
incongruities and advertising in disguise.

14. Techniques to edit a Newspaper Copy
• Copy is edited to highlight the ‘news sense’ and to impart uniformity
of style. Read the story before you edit, to find any ambiguity,
contradiction or structural flaw which demands clarification and
notice of the News Editor.
• A news story is divided into two parts: the lead (the ‘intro’), which
introduces the story and the body, which elaborates the lead. While
the lead tells briefly who, what, where, when, why and how of the
story, the body elaborates, details, and explains it. The lead is
normally written in less than 35 words and should be crisp and
concise.

15. Inverted pyramid
• The ‘inverted pyramid’ style of news writing technique is used which
places the most significant information at the top and then places the
remaining details in the descending order of importance. Each
succeeding paragraph should add an essential detail without being
dependent in content or style on what follows.

16. Advantages of Inverted Pyramid
• i) It helps the sub editor to give the headline by reading the gist of the story
in the Lead.
• ii) A busy reader may just read the lead paragraph.
• iii) The structure of the story remains intact even when paragraphs are
deleted from the bottom for space shortage. Ideally, each paragraph should
not exceed three sentences.
• iv) It is easy to change the order of paragraphs or insert a paragraph or two.
The chronological style, which is narrating the story in the sequence in
which it happened, has none of these flexibilities, and often the most
important part of the story may come at the end, putting the reader’s
patience on trial.

17. Headlines
• Headlines catch the eye of a reader in search of something
interesting in a newspaper. After scanning the headlines, a reader
settles down to read the story in detail.

18. Leads
• In the journalistic parlance, the word ‘lead’ is used in three or four
different senses. The story with the biggest headline on the front page
of a newspaper is called the lead story and in the order of priority the
main stories are called Lead I, Lead II, and Lead III. It is also called the
‘Intro’ (short for introduction).
• Reporters often use the term in the sense of a clue to a story, upon
which they work, probe, research and develop to make it a complete
story. Early reports of the Bhopal gas tragedy put the figure of
casualties at a particular number, which doubled and trebled by the
hour till it crossed a thousand by the midnight hour.

19. Language
• Words are the edifice blocks of writing. Special attention is needed to
work with words, and the way they are constructed into a sentence.
Misplacement of words could distort the meaning. Punctuation
marks are meant for clarity and readability, and too many of them
will clutter the story.

20. MAGAZINE
• A publication that is issued periodically, usually bound in a paper
cover, and typically contains essays, stories, poems, etc., by many
writers, and often photographs and drawings, frequently specializing
in a particular subject or area, as hobbies, news, or sports.
• The meaning "periodical journal containing miscellaneous writings"
dates from the publication of the first one, "Gentleman's Magazine,"
in 1731, which was so called from earlier use of the word for printed
lists of military stores and information, or in a figurative sense, from
the publication being a "storehouse" of information (originally of
books, 1630s).

21. Magazine Editing
• Editing a magazine article means that it has to be proofread,
corrected and rewritten for publication.
• Determine if the article is suitable for the magazine's target audience.
• good writing skills, good news judgment and basic knowledge of
English rules and grammar is required.

22. Review
• Review an article by following the guidelines below.
• Magazine editor is a senior-level journalist responsible for the planning and
execution of issues of consumer and trade magazines. They oversee the writing
content of company staffers or freelancers.
• They ensure the view, content, style and tone of the writing to match the focus of
the magazine. They choose the exact content, written work, photos, the print or the
web that the magazine will publish and also think of headlines and review photo
captions. A Master’s degree and several years of magazine experience are often
required to become a magazine editor.
• As an editor you also get a lot of creative control of the direction a publication
takes.
• Make sure you stay creative and generate new ideas for content, series, headlines,
and more. Keep thinking of new and creative ways to engage the interest of
readers.

23. Techniques to édit a Magazine Article
• Read the article. See if the beginning shows rather than tells what is
about to happen. Determine if the article narrates the scene, such as
the location, action and tone of the subject. Follow your instincts to
determine whether this article will be attractive to your readership
and, in turn, help increase magazine sales.
• Analyze the article to ensure that the structure flows well together,
and that the article is written in active voice. Be sure that the content
is newsworthy and whether the writer interviewed the appropriate
sources. Determine whether the writer asked the right questions
necessary to tell the story.

24. …….Techniques to édit a Magazine Article
• Edit the article for any grammatical, word choice or spelling errors.
Use a style guide, such as The Associated Press Stylebook, and an in-
house guide to verify proper word usage. Rewrite some parts of the
article as needed so that the words and sentences make sense, but be
careful not to take away the meaning of that passage. The goal is to
make the article more interesting and easier to read.
• Cut for length if necessary by eliminating any extra words or fillers not
relevant to the article.

25. …….Techniques to édit a Magazine Article
• Pass the article to the copy editors if applicable. They are the "last line
of defense" in checking for errors in grammar, spelling, statistical or
factual errors.
• Coordinate with the production or layout team. Plan what photos and
captions you'd like to use with the article and determine where in the
magazine you'd like for the article to appear.

26. Tips for editing Magazine
1. You’ll often find weak descriptions in the form of bad adjectives
make your writing more impactful by finding stronger alternatives
like examples :
• Very big = Huge
• Really bad = Terrible
• Very beautiful = Gorgeous

27. ……….Tips for editing Magazine
• Long sentences sometimes contain more than one idea, meaning
readers lose their focus. Use punctuation marks especially comma in
long sentences, you’ll notice that articles are much easier and simpler
to read when sentences are shorter.
• It’s amazing how the smallest edits can have a huge impact on the
readability of an article as your sentences are clearer and tighter.
• Many first drafts will have a bunch of paragraphs without a focus.
When each sentence has a different topic, it’s difficult for a reader to
follow along.

28. ……….Tips for editing Magazine
• Remove jargon if not needed butif your magazine is catering to a
specific audience that understands a particular type of jargon, then
use it. Check a thesaurus for a more common or shorter word if you
need to swap.
• Formatting makes a massive difference to the overall readability of an
article. As an editor, you should be about the following:missing quote
marks, using headingsand subheadings liberally and removing double
spacing.
• The passive voice isn’t always a bad thing- particularly if you’re
writing about a technical topic. But whenever you want to make
writing easier to read use active voice. e.g. “Ben loves Sarah.”

29. ……….Tips for editing Magazine
• Remove unnecessary punctuation because an article littered with
ellipses, colons, and parentheses probably won’t flow well. You can
eliminate much of this punctuation by either adding a comma or
splitting one sentence into two sentences.

30. PHOTO EDITING
• Photos give a face-lift to the page, but they have to be edited to match the layout,
often cropping unnecessary portions. A competent photo editor does not waste
space but trims the picture to highlight its message or meaning, action or the
unique angle in which it is shot. The picture often adds news-value to the story
and breaks the monotony of the page.
• A good photographer has a strong visual sense to foresee a picture before he
shoots. He instinctively sets the aperture of the camera for the lighting on the
location and is ready for action. A news event could be shot from different angles
and the seasoned photographer would know the best angle to shoot from. The
photograph illustrates an event, lending depth and meaning to the story and a
message of its own. Usually, the photographer is given only an idea to work with,
and is expected to create an appropriate picture, to back up the story.